The US military forces' initiative for a hypersonic spacecraft is coming to its reality. The Department of Defense has selected Boeing for turning this concept into reality. The spaceplane would go beyond the Earth's crust and carry a numerous number of satellites to the orbit. DARPA, the agency which is responsible for examining new advanced technologies for the military, has picked Boeing's design concept for this regard.
According to The Verge, the concept has been called as Phantom Express. The agency's experiment is based on an Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program. The vehicle is supposed to be built as a hybrid vehicle between a vertical rocket and an airplane. In this manner, the DARPA XS-1 would be fired as a vertical launcher carrying a number of satellites in the form of a mini rocket, The vehicle when launched will invade the Earth's altitude and will leave a booster with an engine that can propel a satellite weighing up to 3,000 pounds into the orbit After completing this task the XS-1 will come back to the Earth's crust and land upon for getting ready for its next mission.
TechCruch points that by this spacecraft the military is planning to test fire more missions for keeping a dedicated eye on the activities of the orbit. Darryl Davis, president of Boeing Phantom stated: "Phantom Express is designed to disrupt and transform the satellite launch process as we know it today, creating a new, on-demand space-launch capability that can be achieved more affordably and with less risk,"
Post selection of the concept, Boeing has already started working to turn this vehicle into a reality. The vehicle would be powered by an AR-22 engine. The AR-22 utilizes the same type of engine used to power the Space Shuttle. The XS-1 is expected to pave new ways in the trend of spacecraft based experiments.
